So, just chipping in on the 'mass weapons' bit. But I'm pretty sure there's actually ways of firing them that mean the damage is amplified with the subsequent hits. Or in other words, achieving something similar to the way you can focus energy weapons on a single spot. It's just slightly different.
The way I think it would work would be that instead of simultaneous impacts like with energy weapons, you have the shots impact in a specific pattern at specific times. Basically, if you fire six railguns at the target, the first five rounds hit more or less simultaneously in the corners of a pentagon, whilst the sixth shot slams shortly afterwards into the centre of the star. That way the first five crack the armour whilst the last shot punches through the weakened hole in the middle.
Not sure how it would work with missiles however. And I'm not going to chip in on the rest because I'm barely following as is. I'll leave that for the people more willing to dig into the system today.
Honestly, I might just leave at at targeting specific ships and leaving trying to figure out how you guys want to decipher Hex targeting and my deciphering your hex cyphers for shots that either miss or are dodged.
Make it easier on everyone so we don't have to devolve into communicating in C3K script or whatever. It'll be bad enough when we have to move ships on the grid.
So, just chipping in on the 'mass weapons' bit. But I'm pretty sure there's actually ways of firing them that mean the damage is amplified with the subsequent hits. Or in other words, achieving something similar to the way you can focus energy weapons on a single spot. It's just slightly different.
The way I think it would work would be that instead of simultaneous impacts like with energy weapons, you have the shots impact in a specific pattern at specific times. Basically, if you fire six railguns at the target, the first five rounds hit more or less simultaneously in the corners of a pentagon, whilst the sixth shot slams shortly afterwards into the centre of the star. That way the first five crack the armour whilst the last shot punches through the weakened hole in the middle.
Not sure how it would work with missiles however. And I'm not going to chip in on the rest because I'm barely following as is. I'll leave that for the people more willing to dig into the system today.
Honestly the whole mess runs into my own lack of college level science know how mixing with shaped charges and the like. Which is why I wanted to keep it simple.
I mean, the physics of kinetic impact doesn't mean anything when we're talking about shields, because shield are in-universe a bubble of another dimension wrapped around the ship so nothing can pass through.
Looking at the moves, I think we should jumpkill the ship at 12 oclock then, while firing everything at the closest ship at 9 oclock (including rockets). By impacting it with non-(B) weapons, we can take down a good chunk of shields, and then attacking with Frigates/Cruiser/Childhood (B) weapon, we can take down the shield and destroy it (just barely). Filaments should take care of the other one.
I fully expect there to be a single more Fleshripper directly northwest of us (west of most north Fleshripper on map), just outside the sensor range, since they operate in squads of 3. It could theoretically shoot at us. Which is actually good, since we will develop resistance against their weapon type. Nevermind, we will sample it after microjumping, since the Fleshripper shoots back in micro-turn.
Depending on the answer of movement after Microjump, our regroup point should be either Filamented Fleshripper, or a bit northwest of it.
Edit: Made a math mistake somewhere, no rockets needed. Though we may want to fire a few just to be safe. Or spread out fire a bit more.
I didn't have the best grasp of mechanics even before the hiatus, and forgot most of the combat rules by now. I'll pick it back up after I see it in action once more, especially since the rules seem to be in a bit of a flux right now. From what I did understand it only makes sense to require syncing damage between weapons with different speeds, which in practical terms means "missiles/smallcraft and everything else", since even a Speed 20 weapon means being able to shoot anywhere on the map and I don't want to think about times when we reach maps bigger than 40 hexes across. So if one wants to take advantage of additional damage sources bypassing Resistance, they have to hold their fire until the missiles impact, or the smallcraft enter combat range. I don't remember enough about when and in which order damage and movements resolve -- yes, I can see there being different stages, but would it make a difference?
As to whether damage from different ships should stack in a similar way, I have no opinion on the subject since this is something that is a lot more relevant to fighting against us than to our own tactics (1 supership against a swarm of lesser vessels), and I don't know what plans QMs have to deal with that.
What is the "Impacts" stage, and how does it mesh with damage being calculated on hit? If I had to guess, this is what the turn looks like:
1) Weapon Firing:
Everything we fire here resolves instantly if it reaches a hex with another ship, then the enemy fires under the same rules. (We may have the option to withhold fire until the Projectile movement stage to take advantage of additional hits from missiles or smallcraft).
2) Projectile Movements:
Projectiles move before ships do. If any projectiles occupy a hex with a ship, it's a hit. (A rule about "controlled fire" could reasonably make a difference here, at a cost of allowing enemy fire to resolve first during the stage above.)
3) Ship Movements:
Ships move in order of their initiative. If a ship has to go through a hex occupied by a projectile, or a "fired upon" hex, it's a hit. I don't know when it would be advantageous to fire upon a hex instead of a ship, but I suppose it may be an option if we don't have the range to hit the enemy ship directly.
4) Impacts:
???
What is there left to resolve during the Impacts stage? Everything that could have impacted did so in previous stages.
It's this exact question that I ask myself as soon as I hit the post button that lead to the edit because once I asked that to myself absolutely nothing about my ruling made sense.
So no, jumping does not effect movement beyond "you're here, and now you're over here". It doesn't add any movement to your ships, so if you've moved 4 of 7 spaces before the jump you still only have 3 spaces afterwards.
What is the "Impacts" stage, and how does it mesh with damage being calculated on hit? If I had to guess, this is what the turn looks like:
1) Weapon Firing:
Everything we fire here resolves instantly if it reaches a hex with another ship, then the enemy fires under the same rules. (We may have the option to withhold fire until the Projectile movement stage to take advantage of additional hits from missiles or smallcraft).
2) Projectile Movements:
Projectiles move before ships do. If any projectiles occupy a hex with a ship, it's a hit. (A rule about "controlled fire" could reasonably make a difference here, at a cost of allowing enemy fire to resolve first during the stage above.)
3) Ship Movements:
Ships move in order of their initiative. If a ship has to go through a hex occupied by a projectile, or a "fired upon" hex, it's a hit. I don't know when it would be advantageous to fire upon a hex instead of a ship, but I suppose it may be an option if we don't have the range to hit the enemy ship directly.
4) Impacts:
???
What is there left to resolve during the Impacts stage? Everything that could have impacted did so in previous stages.
Impacts stage is the resolution of ships and vessels crossing the travel path of any weapons that are currently in flight and thus getting hit.
This of it more as a "remember to double check everything that hit other things" stage than a solid point in the battle line. Like if someone moved through a hex that also had a mass driver round flying through it.
As for firing upon a Hex, there's a number of reasons such as area denial to restrict enemy movement. Or incidental firing such as a weapon missing and flying off into the wild blue yonder.
This of it more as a "remember to double check everything that hit other things" stage than a solid point in the battle line. Like if someone moved through a hex that also had a mass driver round flying through it.
I thought that resolves as a part of the 3rd stage (ship movement) + the rule that crossing paths with projectiles counts as a hit, and damage is calculated on hit.
I mention this because when the damage occurs is relevant to the current discussion. If it's supposed to take place at the special "Impacts" stage when the total damage the ship has sustained this turn is calculated and inflicted, it'd be one thing (though it'd be illogical as it means that ships taking lethal amount of fire would be able to move and then die as the impacts occur last). It'd be another if it is separate for every turn stage, or separate for every ship, or even for every individual weapon (which was the assumption that started this discussion and was since disproven by LostDeviljho).
Separate damage for every turn stage would work like this: the damage a ship takes from all sources during a given stage is tallied up, and then applied to the ship after resistances are detracted from it. It would make shields a little underwhelming, as they would reduce the totals only once per stage.
Separate damage for every ship would calculate the damage by a combined ship's weapons against another ship, and apply resistances to that. It's not a lot, but it would allow big ships to shrug off fire from lesser craft while still being easily penetrated by more powerful weapons, which may be closer to the intent.
So a quick question in regards of needing a new plan.
Would the line:
-[] Federation and Childhood fire at 6 the oclock ship with weapons which can damage the shield.
mean that all ships will fire and destroy the Fleshripper, or will Shield-gating screw us over?
Since all weapons can apparently damage the shield, this is apparently a order of "Fire all guns which can shoot" to that range. But is it shooting in 2 waves, so that first wave destroys the shield and second wave the ship, or is it all random and the damage gets spread out? Do we need to specify it enough?
Basically asking if I need to remake the plan with minor modifications.
Shield gating will prevent overflow damage from synchronized shots unless they're beam weapons. That said, most of the fed fleet should be running beam weapons.
Shield gating will prevent overflow damage from synchronized shots unless they're beam weapons. That said, most of the fed fleet should be running beam weapons.
So I basically need to remake the plan and add a few words:
[X] Plan Punchout v2
-[X] Federation and Childhood fire at 6 the oclock ships in two bursts, first one with (B) weapons, second one with everything else except rockets, to destroy the ship.
-[X] Move Federation ships to 7 oclock ship, Childhood to Microjump at the top of of 7 oclock ship and destroy it with Subspace Filament in a micro-turn
-[X] Federation ships to reroute spare power to shields, to maximize it's power.
-[X] Spare power to Clairvoyance System to expand the range greatly
-[X] Upon 7 oclock Fleshripper destruction, plot a course outside of the encirclement while firing in bursts (beams first). Try to gather up all the Fleshrippers in a stack.
I could just edit in the words in the plan, but that feels dirty.
Should be just enough to destroy a single Fleshripper per a turn. Plus the Filaments with microjump (which is once per 3 turns).
